Penile artist goes for Zuma

Published May 15, 2009

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Jacob Zuma has joined the ranks of world leaders who have been immortalised by penile artist Pricasso.

The portrait, showing Zuma in Zulu regalia with shield and spear, has pride of place in Pricasso's stand at the Sexpo, which opened in Cape Town this week.

Pricasso, an Australian whose real name is Tim Patch, paints with the end of his penis, and on Friday was busy executing life portraits of visitors to the exhibition.

However the picture of Zuma, he confessed, was done from a photograph, not from a sitting.

He said the idea of the portrait came after he saw a documentary on Zuma, who was sworn in as president at the weekend.

"I thought I'd better do something topical," he said."The thing that stood out for me was he had four wives. How does he manage it?"

The Zuma portrait is on show at his stall along with portraits of Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe with a large penis, Barack Obama, George Bush, and the British queen.

Though it was not on display, Patch said, he had also painted Australian premier Kevin Rudd. Asked about the future of the Zuma painting, he said he had promised it to the Sexpo organisers.

"No-one knows who he is at home," he said. Patch executes his paintings wearing only a large silver lame top hat and matching leggings that come up to his knees.

He uses a palette of paints that he mixes himself - "a bit kinder than acrylic" - which rests on a stand at waist height.

When he is not using his brush, he keeps it in a silver lame pouch tied over his groin.

Patch is a father of four who studied furniture design when he failed to get into a fine arts course and then spent most of his life as a builder. He took up his current career on a dare from a female friend at a New Years' Eve party in 2005.

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